Office visit on May, 1, 2006
A 7 years old girl came for allergy and overweight following up.
Dr.: Congratulation! Your daughter has lost 2 pounds for the last 2 months. What did you do?
Mother: I also lost 12 oz. We changed a little for our family life style.
- No soft drinks at all, and drink 4 glasses of water daily instead.
- Switch 2% milk to 1 % milk. My daughter usually takes 16 oz milk daily.
- Decreased 10 % solid food daily.
Dr.: You both did a wonderful job. Now the most important thing is to maintain the change, and to keep a little more change of your life style. Try to increase physical activity by 10%, such as walking together after dinner, sharing house work and yard work. Try to decrease 10% more carbohydrates and increase green vegetables and fiber foods. I will suggest that your daughter starts to take multivitamin daily.
Mother: I will. When will we come back for the following up visit?
Dr.: In 2-3 months before school opens.
Feb. 27, 2006
7 years old girl came for nasal allergy following up.
Dr.: Your daughter gained 14 pounds for last 10 months. Usually, children gain about 5-6 pounds per year when they’re 2-8 years old. I worry that she will gain too much weight in the next several years, because there is significant history of being overweight in your family. We have to work together to prevent her from becoming overweighted.
Mother: I agree. What should we do?
Dr.: There are several steps we can go through together.
- Let’s read the handout of overweight with your daughter. We all need to know the risks of overweight so we know how important to prevent and control it.
- Your daughter is only 7 years old. You have full responsibility to help your daughter to eat healthy foods and exercise more. The life style in the whole family should be changed.
- It is hard to change your life style. I suggest making a little change each time. Your daughter drinks 36 oz of soft drinks daily now. Could you cut drinking soft drinks by 8oz per day, instead you could give more water? Try to cut carbohydrates by 10%, cut total intake by 10%, and increase physical activities by 10%. The 10% change will make life different!
- Follow up with me in 1-2 months. Almost all overweight kids, who come back for regular follow-up, control their weight well.
Mother: I will come back on time. |
